Comments on a wide variety of subjects from the widow of the "Mad Genius"

Friday, September 6, 2013

Exploring the border between painting and photography #3

"Look for one thing, find another"This oft repeated proverb poked up again this week. I was rummaging through my commonplace books looking for a reference to a book I read some time ago, and I came upon this statement written during August 2008, while I was working on the images in the current show. Isn't it frustrating when one crafts many words to express a concept, then discovers that the work was already done, and probably more clearly and concisely, than recent efforts. So I will share it. Then we will look at a picture of some pixels!

Beauty is an elusive concept; at least understanding what is meant by the word "beauty" can be very elusive. The term is most often used to denote a strange and undisciplined amalgam of associations, remembrances, aspirations, and evidence of the investment of effort. But these are all external to the object or the place- external to the subject if you will. The subject then becomes a rack upon which this veil of subjectivity is hung.

But the subject has also it's own beauty. The beauty of pattern and light, energy, color and texture which is its own, which is it's own and is available for our pleasure if we have the courage to look at, and appreciate, that which is before us; to see it in its own intense and individual beauty, rather than only seeing its resemblance to, or difference from our preconceptions.

In this series of images I share with you the hours of my days in the month of August. from the most prosaic to the most splendid places that I pass through. Watch what beauty the sky and the light give, even to the alley behind my home. It is a precious gift, the light and sounds and air of our days, and a fleeting one that you or I could be severed from in an instant. I challenge you to treasure every hour of every one of your days- here I make mine a gift to you.

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About Me

The author of this blog lives in a wonderful apartment in one of Boston's most pleasant streets. It happened by accident. He is very happy. He reminds you that we are responsible for creating the world we want to live in, that happiness is something we do, not something we find, and that for the creatively willful, believing is seeing.
He enjoys epigrams, only listens to live music, asks how old babies are and plays with dogs. Other peoples babies, and other peoples dogs.
He considers his blog to be a work of fiction; "fictionalize it, said the mad genius," but assures you that every word is true! It's rather like life, he supposes.